Tiny minority of extremists update: if there weren't a market for these things, they wouldn't be manufactured. From Richard S. Ehrlich in AsiaTimes, with thanks to EPG:
BANGKOK - The Osama bin Laden cigarette lighter is adorned with his raised, chrome portrait, an embossed "9-11", sketches of the New York World Trade Center, an approaching airplane, and a big red splotch. When you flick the sleek, metal lighter open, a light-emitting diode illuminates the splotch so it glows bright red on one of the buildings, emphasizing the site of the first crash. Loud, computerized music beeps out a loop of Mozart.Made in China - as are many of the latest gimmicky Osama bin Laden souvenirs - the butane lighter recently showed up in Cambodia.
"I paid US$2 for it, in the old Soviet market in Phnom Penh," a Canadian traveler, who asked not to be identified, said in an interview after visiting the Cambodian capital. "One man's catastrophe is another man's cheesy souvenir," he said. "I bought three, for the novelty. I'll give them to people who would appreciate the irony that they even exist. When you open it, it plays a classical tune. It's quite freaky, eh?"
The lighter came boxed with a gold-and-black cigarette holder, and was manufactured by Boerda Smoking Set Co Ltd. An Internet search indicated the Chinese company makes various lighters for domestic use and export.
In a crammed, middle-class shopping mall in Bangkok, other bin Laden souvenirs are also currently on sale. A Thai shop selling lava lamps, magic tricks and embarrassing gifts to surprise recipients, offers a small, inexpensive hand puppet of bin Laden wearing boxing gloves. Stick your fingers inside and wiggle them, and little Osama punches the air.
On Bangkok's popular Khao San Road, where thousands of backpackers flock to cheap hotels, restaurants, discos and an avant garde street market, stalls sell droopy, rubbery bin Laden masks alongside other scary faces.
The souvenirs appear to be made not by bin Laden supporters, but by profit-seeking factories that have slapped bin Laden's visage, and symbols of his international Islamist war, onto existing generic toys and other items in a crass effort to reach a fresh demographic of buyers.
Is there any proof that Bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 attacks?
Could it not have been Mohammed Atta who masterminded it?
No pattern
RAGE AT 9/11 'GAME'
By PATRICK GALLAHUE and ILAN KAYATSKY
Disgusted Brooklyn residents were up in arms over a video game that turns the horrifying events of 9/11 into child's play.
A hand-held video holy war, called "Laden vs. USA," features digital planes flying into the World Trade Center.
http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/006475.php#comments
It would be interesting to know the Chinese company that produces these. Many times they are owned by Westerners.
Additionally, any American companies doing business with this Chinese company should be posted by name. That way if we chose to have our wallets boycott any American companies that have contracts with them we could do so.
Now on a side note, what if this company could produce a lighter in the shape of the Koran that when you light it the pages light up in flames and it has the sound of AK47's firing "ak,ak,ak,ak,ak,ak".
What I find remarkable is that it should be produced in that haven of Muslim power, China. Islamic business seems incapable to exploit even their own bad passions; their lack of productive abilities is amazing.
This goes back a long way. In the time of the Ottoman Empire, as everyone knows, the favourite Muslim piece of headgear was the fez - a rather pointless truncated triangle of fez with no flaps and a fetching pompon dangling from a thread on top. What not so many of us know is that nearly all of these fezs were manufactured, not in the Middle East or Constantinople, but in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, their Christian neighbour. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was not remotely an industrial giant; among European countries, it was one of the most backward, with very limited entrepreneurial and capitalistic abilities. Yet their exports balance showed a neat annual item from those weird hats which they made but never wore. Of course, one imagines, the Turks made this another of their complaints against exploitative, aggressive, meddling Westerners.
What I find remarkable is that it should be produced in that haven of Muslim power, China. Islamic business seems incapable to exploit even their own bad passions; their lack of productive abilities is amazing.
This goes back a long way. In the time of the Ottoman Empire, as everyone knows, the favourite Muslim piece of headgear was the fez - a rather pointless truncated triangle of felt with no flaps and a fetching pompon dangling from a thread on top. What not so many of us know is that nearly all of these fezs were manufactured, not in the Middle East or Constantinople, but in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, their Christian neighbour. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was not remotely an industrial giant; among European countries, it was one of the most backward, with very limited entrepreneurial and capitalistic abilities. Yet their exports balance showed a neat annual item from those weird hats which they made but never wore. Of course, one imagines, the Turks made this another of their complaints against exploitative, aggressive, meddling Westerners.
Er, whoops... tried to straighten out a misspelling, ended up double posting... sorry, all.
A little research on the internet....
the manufactorer is Boerda Smoking Set Co LTD (it would still be interesting to know who the players are) It appears to be a German company.
One of the main American distributors is Zodiac Gifts. www.zodiacgift.com
I think that it would be nice if everyone let Zodiac know what we think of their business connections.
Isn't smoking forbidden in Islam? If so, then isn't putting a prominent Muslim on a lighter an offense? Perhaps we could get CAIR to file a lawsuit.
There were Muslims and Qurans in the WTC buildings along with make-shift Mosques for
prayer times during working hours for the Muslims on staff as a sign of respect and tolerance.
So where's the outrage over these lighters
glorifying the desacretion of Qurans by Saudi
Muslims slaughtering Gods children for Allah and the Islamic crusade for Global domination and
Shariah Law imposed by Imams with the "True"
version of the Quran.
Now if only the Hi-jackers had flushed Qurans down the toilets on the Airplanes before killing Muslims and attacking the Mosques in the WTC towers,THEN there would have been outrage by CAIR and Mr.Hooper over this terrorists attack and not the trivial "Alleged" cases on a (get ready for this) non-believers at Gitmo prison actually touching the Quran.
It's OK to put one in a car driven by a suicide bomber that blows up a Mosque
It's OK to hold up and also cite verses from
it while hacking off the head of a civilian
that has their hands tied behind their back.
It's OK for Palestinian children to dress
as suicide bombers and praise Allah for their
future slaughtering of infidels as written in it as they display it with pride.
It's OK to sell a altered version in English to the Western infidels that get a false teaching of Muhammed.
It's OK to use it to murder other Muslims that offend Allah by not being the "True" followers of Muhammed.
I'm glad Osama has cleared this up and the World can see Islam for the death-cult that it is and created by a misognyistic pedophile with voices in his head telling him he speaks for God
and can kill at will sinnce Allah too busy at the moment to run the World.
Too bad Muhammed didn't have any tinfoil to make a hat for blocking out those signals from aliens
way up in the mothership.
Ni Hao, I've got to give it to the Chinese, they will do absolutely anything for a buck. They've got to be the worlds best entrepreneurs even if their government lets them only play with two hands tied behind their backs. No morals, no rules, they just go for it. Primitive but effective. By the way, Ni Hao (pronounced knee how) is the Mandarin word for hello. Cheers!
What do you expect from a bunch of godless commies.
Anyone who would manufacture an item such as this should be ashamed.
How many companies have made fun of the mass execution of innocent peoples throughout the middle east? Can we get a doll manufactured, that would spurt blood as it is slowly beheaded with a dull knife that would be included with the purchase? Would this manufacturer dare to generate something of this nature to poke fun at the Tsunami victims who were mostly moslem? How about a 'toy' that simulates the sacrifice of our men in WWII... would/could they make a toy or a game that includes our GI's getting off boats and being annihalated as we fought for the freedom of Europe? Would/could they make a toy or a game that would poke fun at the Children of Belsan... "the aim of the game is to shoot the child in the back as he/she runs for safety... shoot the crying parent and you get a double point". ??!!??
What in the freaking hell is this world coming to? In my opinion, this World went straight to Hell on 9/11.
Vile Chinese scumbags pissing on the graves of 3,000 murdered people.
Elephant-
(Assuming you're not kidding... or an imbecile...)
"Is there any proof that Osama Bin Laden masterminded 9/11?"
(Where the f*ck have you been for the past 3 1/2 years?)
I guess you missed the Osama video/audio of him claiming credit and gloating over the 'unexpected success of 9/11' because 'even he never expected the World Trade Towers to collapse'.
Then many chuckles shared between him and his henchmen.
M. Atta was just a psychotic messenger boy.
A hopefully-horribly-sufffering-before-he-died messenger boy for a hopefully-soon-to-be-joining-him-in-hell Osama Bin Laden.
Business-idea:
Perhaps the same company could produce lighters with the Swastika-Koran printed on it, and on the back some anti-jihad websites?
We could use that to further our cause too...
It's no surprise. The Chinese have been proping up North Korea for 50 years. After all it was the Chinese we fought in the Korean War and there were some Chinese in the Vietnam war. There were Chinese weapons all over Afghanistan. There are Chinese nuke plans found in Libya. There used to be a Chinese telecommunications network for air defenses in Iraq before we blew it up. The Chinese are big players in Iran, pals with Syria, and enemies of Japan. Anyone else see a pattern here?
Anything for a buck...
The Chinese are playing with fire buddying up with Islamogovs. There is no loyalty, only mutual exploitation. If the Chinese think they can be friends with Allahs followers, they got another think comming....
Don't know if the Chinese should be blamed for this. They don't initiate, design, market, or own. They just manufacture... anything, MacDonald's Happy Meal toys. Trillions of parts and items. They hardly know or care what the significance or meaning of what they are making. To them it is an item of a certain material, shape, size, and what quantity you want, and they go cookie stamp them out.
The ones who should receive our vituperation are the designers and owners, the initiators, and profiters.
Paolo: "What I find remarkable is that it should be produced in that haven of Muslim power, China."
Paolo,
Sorry to disagree with you.
Calling China a muslim power is like calling America a muslim power. Can't be further from the truth. There are some muslims in China, but they are miniscule compared to the rest of the population. And when they agitate, which they have done, in the remote western regions, the Chinese government lands on them like a force of nature.
They don't take sh*t from these people. They don't do PC. They don't bend backwards to give them special priviledges. And if the muslim bastards try to do violence to peaceful people in China, like they are doing now in Europe, the Chinese will turn them to pulp on the asphalt. They won't let their culture be supplanted. And f**k political correctness. You don't mess with their country. They'll keep it Chinese.
Wish I can say the same for Britain, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Italy, Germany, Spain, Canada, even the States.
Dear Skidd,
You are absolutely correct! I have many friends and business colleagues in China and have freely shared my cautionary thoughts about Beijing getting too close to the Islamic world. The answers I received were far from inscrutiable - namely that most Chinese LOATH the Arabs, and this normalization of relationships is nothing more than a "balance of power" to off-set USA and EU policy. Remember that China is the second largest consumer of oil in the world and shares a border with Pakistan. Further, if there is any doubt as the the true relation between the PRC and the Islamic world, we ought to remember that there have been numerous skirmishes in the western territories, where the majority of the Chinese Muslim population (Uighurs) live. There is very little... appreciation of the religion of peace in the PRC.
http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/11/china10447.htm
The subtleties of America's reaction to 9/11 are generally not understood by the average Chinese - at least not any more than there was much large scale understanding or sympathy of the bombing
of China's embassy in Belgrade in 1999. Anyone remember that one???
Heck... as far as the ethics of the marketplace go, a recent best selling CD in China was a collection of Red Army Revolutionary songs set to Hip Hop beats! Is nothing sacred??
Dear Scorpius,
Thanks for your post. Good to have confirmation.
"Heck... as far as the ethics of the marketplace go, a recent best selling CD in China was a collection of Red Army Revolutionary songs set to Hip Hop beats! Is nothing sacred??"
Hey, they're chilling! :-)
Paolo since when is China a haven of Muslim power?
The Muslim population is small, confined to a seaport on the China sea, and the Turkomen in the NW China.
The Chinese government is non religious and is concerned about Islam.
Where do you get your information? Or are you like the Muslim who believes the word is the thing?
Could it not have been Mohammed Atta who masterminded it?
Posted by: Elephant
Osama claimed credit for 9-11 a number of times, but most specifically on an October 2004 tape.
However Osama is not a military tactician, that job is left to his partner Ayman Zawhiri.
It took five years to plan and pull off 9-11, that's how they operate. As the Muslims, like Zarqawi say they are a patient nation, they believe that time and Allah are on their side.
Unlike us westerners they don't demand or expect immediate results. It suffices that they do their bit for the moslemah (worldwide community of believers) in their "struggle in the way of Allah" (Jihad) and they will get their reward in paradise, but passing the examination of their worldly sins - though they sin, the sins are forgiven for fighting and/or dying in the way of Allah.
Giaour, you twit, you really have no idea what irony is, do you? Please, please, please, at least try to read what I wrote, instead of singling out one bit and failing to understand it. I was speaking about the catastrophic effects of Islam on the ordinary human spirit of enterprise.
" Is there any proof that Osama Bin Laden masterminded 9/11?"
No, and there is no proof that the people who fell to their deaths from the upper floors of the Towers jumped instead of being pushed.
Can you prove that Napoleon invaded Russia?
Good grief man!
Never underestimate the Chinese...
For Believers, refer to Revelations.
For the rest of us/you, just "take my word". The Chinese will have a HUGE part in the battle to come. And the Chinese won't side with islamists.
The Chinese will continue to watch, and wait patiently for Europe and the States to fall under the sword of islam.. The Chinese are laughing at Kim Jung Ill and the USA, because KJ-Ill holds the weapons that China not only developed and gav e them, knowing that what they gave them will eventually be used against us. China is pissed, and the Taiwan issue is only a festering wound. They are watching, and waiting, and KNOWING that we (under the muffling blanket of PC -- which will come to an absolute screeching halt) will bow to the islamists in due time, which will give rise to the Chinese and Russians. We will call upon them for our own aid and rescue, and they will collectively laugh at our dilemma. It's in the Bible.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY.